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Thursday, July 24, 2014

Don't blame the monks for the drunks: Orthodox Monastery to Dominate Finnish Whiskey Production

An Orthodox monastery in Finland is set to become the country's largest whiskey producer, according to local media reports.

The monastery, which is already in the wine-production
business, is prepared to invest millions of euros into the construction
of a distillery, Finnish MTV News reported Wednesday. It expects
to produce 120,000 liters of the spirit annually.

The finished product will be bottled at Finland's historic Hermannin Winery, the oldest in the country.Bottles of Valaam Whiskey will reach liquor stores in spring 2018.

The spirit will be produced in the New Valaam Monastery
in Finland, which was established in 1940 by monks who had been
evacuated from their old monastery in Russia's Karelia.

The original Valaam Monastery was occupied by Soviet forces
shortly after the evacuation, but was reopened in 1989, and is now
frequented by President Vladimir Putin. Unlike the Finnish monastery, it
does not produce any alcoholic beverages.